Indra Nooyi has led PepsiCo’s global strategy for over a decade. In 2013, she was named the third most powerful woman in business by Fortune. Seven years running, she’s been on Forbes’ list of 100 Most Powerful Women.
Nooyi was born in India and received a BA in Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics from Madras Christian College and an MBA from Indian Institute of Management Calcutta before moving to the US to attend the Yale School of Management. After graduating from Yale, Nooyi joined the Boston Consulting Group, then worked in strategy at Motorola and power company Asea Brown Boveri. She joined PepsiCo in 1994 and became president and CFO in 2001 before being appointed CEO in 2006.

- A little bit colorful sort of woman in an iconic US based company that's gone global, that's always been run by white males, and you've got the beginnings of a juicy story.

- I grew up in Madras, in the south of India, in a very rigid, strict upbringing, and as a kid, I was a tomboy, I was a girl when I needed to be, I was a student, I was a daughter, I was everything. One of the most complex personalities.

- It's a unacceptable age to graduate from business school. People don't even finish undergraduate before they're 21 or 22, and so, even though I worked in India for two years, I found that I didn't have a lot of the expertise, the deep knowledge, the business acumen, and I just loved looking at everything end-to-end, and looking at the interdependents of every discipline

- So the letter comes that I've gotten into the Yale School of Management. I go to my parents and say, "Can I go?" and they go, "Absolutely not." My mom says, "I'm going to get you married off." I said, "What do you mean, married off?" She said, "Yeah. "You're now 22 years old. "High time to get married. "No single woman's going to go off "alone to the United States." My dad says, "We're not going to discriminate "between the boys and the girls in the family. "She should have an equal chance "in doing whatever she wants."

- The intellect is one part, but there's this time, there's a fit, there's a culture issue, I mean, so many things, you know, I had to learn. The time comes to interview for summer jobs, and I only had saris, or jeans, both of which were quite unacceptable. I had 50 bucks saved, so I went to the local Kmart and got a bright blue polyester pantsuit. Not the best clothes for an interview, but that's all I could afford. I was very proud of it. I ran out of money to buy shoes, so I had these big orange snow boots. The words of my mother kept coming back. She said, "Always buy clothes two sizes "bigger because you'll grow into it." I forgot that I'd already fully grown. I walk into the interview hall, and all the other students are sort of laughing at me, and I can feel it. I hold my head up high, conduct the interview, but herein lies the irony. Maybe 25 students interviewed. They hired two. I was one of them. In spite of the lousy outfit.

- I think I've given seven days a week, 20 hours a day, kind of workload to Pepsi Co. Being a parent and doing well in both. It's just, there's not enough hours in the day. Your biological clock and your career clock are in conflict with each other. You have to give up something. So what do you do? But you know what? At the end of the day, I look at my kids and I go, "Everything was worth it."

- We have, in the United States, a meritocracy, which we should never lose. I've always focused on doing a damn good job, and just hoping the rest of it takes care of itself. I got a call from the CEO then,, and he said, "The board is going to, "in all likelihood, vote you in as CEO." And I was like, "Oh my god, I'm going to be CEO!" And that's a pretty big shock.

- When you actually ascend to the top, it's a whole different ballgame, because you're it, and now, amplify that with the fact that you're foreign born, from an emerging market, so diversity itself is taking on a richer meaning, but clearly, gender diversity has to be embraced as the only way for a company to be successful. I don't think we have a choice.

- My dad always told me,"When people talk to you,
"assume positive intent."
When somebody sayssomething, we always say,
"I'm sure there's a hidden agenda there."
My dad would always say,"Assume positive intent
on everything, and you'llfind that your whole approach
to life, to a discussion, is different."
Now, I'll be honest with you,
I don't follow this all the time myself,
I just wish I would, becauselife would be so much easier
if we all assumed positiveintent of each other.
(upbeat xylophone music)